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AustinF1

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Everything posted by AustinF1

  1. By the way, the bump issue was even worse than the riders expected... The track's in bad shape. Riders this year talked about bumps forcing their butts off their seats and their feet getting knocked off the pegs at high speed on the back straight. Then there was Aleix Espargaro, who broke both lock stops at over 200 mph: Here's Espargaro & Danilo Petrrucci after Friday practice this year. They aren't talking about ripples in the braking zone. This is the part that COTA should be most worried about - how quickly the track has become so bumpy. Rossi & Jack Miller: Dovizioso: It's bumpy everywhere. Not sure if it can be fixed without a total rebuild...
  2. Hey Nick, I feel your friend's pain re: the GA experience at COTA. They are definitely not friendly to General Admission fans. However, it seems like someone gave him some bad info. GA is open all the way from where the tunnel crosses under the front straight up past turn 1, all the way down the east side of the track (T1-11), and around T11 to the premium RV lot. Then it picks up again at T16 & 17, then again at 18-20. It was probably a clueless or misinformed temp worker, as practically everyone you see on a race day there works for some temp agency. It's a rare thing to actually see someone who works for COTA. It's sad that they won't get better workers at the facility and educate them in a way that's helpful to the fan experience, but that's COTA for you. I feel bad that his trip to COTA was ruined by that kind of bad service. We hear about things like this over and over and over again. People say we're anti-COTA, but we aren't. We want people to come here and have a good time in Austin and enjoy the racing at the track. We try to help people do that as much as we can, because COTA's certainly not going to do it.
  3. Texas May Give F1's US Grand Prix Its Missing $25 Million https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2019/05/09/sports/ap-car-f1-us-grand-prix-finances.html https://apnews.com/d0e1cf252bd342d7a68c9d2d5ffd1f54
  4. Indeed. This is like a Legislative Time Machine, where you just pay a fee to go back in time and change laws to fit your massive miscues.
  5. So what do you do if you're COTA/Epstein and you screwed the pooch on your application for $25M of free taxpayer subsidy money? Why of course you just flaunt the law, cry "Unfair!" when it's enforced, and then get a friendly legislator from way out in West Texas to introduce tailor-made stealth legislation, changing the law ... retroactively ... so it's like you never effed up in the first place. It seems COTA has pushed legislation that would retroactively allow them to collect the ~$25M they lost when they botched their 2018 F1 MERP application. HB 4008 would change the law, effective RETROACTIVELY, to cover COTA's ass on their own failure to comply with the law.
  6. After COTA repairs, MotoGP riders hope 'Horsepower Rodeo' is less bumpy https://www.statesman.com/sports/20190411/after-cota-repairs-motogp-riders-hope-horsepower-rodeo-is-less-bumpy The article incorrectly states that "The section including Turns 9, 10 and 11 was fully repaved". In fact, the repave did not include Turns 9 or 11. Only Turn 10 was repaved. As for the Statesman labeling as 'theories' the comments that the bumps might be caused by the soil conditions, that's a fact, not a theory. It's not the weather or F1 cars as COTA continues to suggest LOL.
  7. Austin: Riders doubtful of COTA bump fix https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/917399/1/riders-doubtful-cota-bump-fix
  8. Michelin re: COTA Bumps: "We don't know what to expect in Austin" for MotoGP https://t.co/SIwgx0DnOu
  9. I'd be all-in on that. If he puts an asphalt oval there, I'd still go, but I'd probably go even more often for dirt.
  10. IndyCars on an oval are a good show. Seeing them at TMS when it opened is what got me interested in Open Wheel racing, leading to my F1 addiction. I'm taking my boys to the 500 this summer to hopefully see Alonso nail the triple crown. Really looking forward to it. Never been...
  11. Welp, if word spreads, it'll have to be by word of mouth, because COTA isn't gonna spread it. But that's not a new race atmosphere at COTA. Even on the racing grid we've seen the same or even more access with other series, some of whom have long since told COTA goodbye despite better crowds than the one IndyCar drew last weekend - V8SC, WEC, IMSA, PWC/Blancpain, the 24H Series, etc. I think IndyCar will probably stay for their contract, but after that, it'll be "Adios" imho. That is ... if it's a 3 year contract. If it's 5 years, I doubt they'll last that long. Can't remember which it is.
  12. What do you think is a good crowd for IndyCar? Did you know that the Lone Star Le Mans races and the one-off Aussie V8SC race outdrew this IndyCar race, despite temperatures in the 90s for most of those races and very good weather this past weekend? Even the stand-alone IMSA and WEC races did better than IndyCar after splitting the Lone Star Le Mans into separate weekends in 2017. FYI (because few people know this kind of stuff re: COTA) .... There were just around 30,000 reserved seats in use for Indycar, and they were still only, at best, around 20% full on average during the race (if I'm being generous). The Main Grandstand, T1 GS, & T15 GS were pathetically empty, and the General Admission crowd was just bad at best. The most crowded-looking grandstand was T12, which has been cut in half and is also where they put the giveaway tickets and discounted tickets. There was a moderate GA gathering at T1, but typically crowded GA areas were full of nothing. T6 was not very crowded & T18 was virtually empty. T11 was deserted. The crowd along the esses was very thin, and there were maybe 25-50 people beyond Turn 6 during the race, probably at least partially due to the fact that COTA wouldn't turn on any TV beyond the esses (as they've also been doing for MotoGP lately). Friday and Saturday, the turnout was embarrassingly bad, both in the stands and in GA. They had to move the concert from the Superstage to the much smaller amphitheater because they knew the small crowd would look ridiculous at the Superstage. Optics are more important than actual crowd numbers at COTA. They didn't even use Lots L or M, but still couldn't fill Lots A, F, or T, even on race day, despite the weather this past weekend being pretty great. Regardless of Epstein and IndyCar putting a happy face on it, it wasn't a good crowd (to put it mildly). That's what usually happens when the local promoter pretty much doesn't promote. Nothing new here. Don't get me started on the whole 'Reserved seat holders were out walking around or sitting in the dirt beside the track, so that's why the place looked so empty' nonsense. The GA crowd was strikingly sparse out in the places he's talking about. The place looked empty because it was empty. He can say he's happy with the crowd, but if he is, then his bar is pretty low. I can't imagine IndyCar is happy, regardless of what they're saying now. WEC, IMSA, V8SC, and X Games all put a nice spin on things right up til they left COTA. V8SC and X Games both left early, mid-contract. And wait a minute - 80000 for F1? That's a lot less than COTA's been telling us.
  13. They'll probably be back, but I'm pretty certain what will happen long term is that IndyCar and Epstein will put a happy face on the whole thing right up to the part when IndyCar pulls out, the same way V8 Supercars, IMSA, WEC, and the X Games did. That crowd was a complete joke. It was terrible.
  14. If. BTW, that 'nearly 30,000' figure probably includes Friday & Saturday, & does include the 10,000 mostly non-race attendees he says showed up for the Muse concert (that started two hours after Saturday's track action ended and really had nothing to do with the race).
  15. Not a bad weekend of racing, esp the Stadium Supertrucks, which really stole the show imho. Robby Gordon's really onto something with that series. Too bad hardly anyone showed up.
  16. I don't think they ever really believed COTA's ridiculously inflated numbers. More like they just looked the other way. But yeah, my initial reaction to all of this is that for some reason the Gov feels it's politically prudent to stop supporting the shenanigans and looked for a reason to torpedo their money for this year and then do lip service to next year. I could be wrong, but if not, this could be really, really bad for COTA. As in 'fatal'. Or it could all be a dog and pony show like when they briefly lowered the funding in 2015 and took the MERP into the Gov's office from the Comptroller under the guise of 'cleaning it up'. LOL. What do you think, Nick?
  17. Indeed. I get the feeling the Gov's office may be tiring of the shenanigans and is starting to distance itself from the COTA dumpster fire.
  18. Hey Nick!! I think Saward is wrong here in assuming the the State's preliminary approval was an error. IIRC that's pretty much standard operating procedure when it comes to the MERP. Seems like he's trying to help COTA find some wiggle room, but the law is pretty straightforward. But then, have you ever told Saward he was wrong about something? Oh, the humanity...
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